Little Blessings

Take time to ...

... see the hummingbirds.

A coworker discovered this little guy resting in a pot of bacopa while she was watering. He nearly got a shower. One of his stilts was broken, so we relocated him to the store where he sat on the counter and looked about, fell in a bowl of sweetened water offered to him, buried himself in the heliotrope blossoms also offered to him, and finally took off on a wild, skittery flight through the greenhouse.

Poor Flicker died a short while later; but he died a celebrity.

Thankful for the little details that make life worth living, :)

Jenn

Motorcycle Race

Last October, Uncle Rob took us to this really great motorcyle race at Cadwell Park, in Louth, Lincolnshire. It took an hour to get there, but was well worth the trip.

I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong, but I think this was the classic bike race.

You can see what a beautiful area the Park was set in, and a rough idea of how much ground it covered. We moved around some, so we could see the race from different angles, including the varying turns and climbs.
Hot pursuit
Popping a wheel on the rise

For some reason, I'm unable to get Blogger to upload any of my own videos, so I went to Youtube and found several to give you an idea of what it was like. This one is interesting, because you get to see what the track is like from aboard a bike. And yes, the numbers are miles per hour. :)
A blur of speed
Leaning into the turn
Older and newer bikes
Many different styles

Good footage-this clip shows the entire race
Looking around the grounds produced tents of the racers and their bikes.
Nice English Flag :)

Flame 'em

Fueling up after the race; we guessed Baked Beans.

Spectator watching the race

A certain uncle inspecting a bike. Didn't realise he was being documented...

The truth sets in... hiding from the press.

(His feet give him away. It's hard to find an equal to those! Heh, heh.)

Now comes the best part, the sidecar race! I told Jenn that if she'd drive, I'd be the passenger. Whoohoo! (For those of you who have never seen a sidecar race, the idea is for the passenger to move his/her weight over the particular wheel and keep the bike from tipping. A very basic definition, I know, but I'm not up on all the terms.) This was the winning team, and yes, the passenger was a girl and the employee of the driver. ;)

Leaning right over the edge

View of a sidecar race; couldn't find any better videos.

Not much selection.

Rival in close pursuit

Getting ready to go waay over. That leather isn't just for looks.

A look from aboard a sidecar. There's quite a bit of unneeded footage at the end when they forget to turn the camera off, but the perspective is interesting. We had a great time.